Small flint tools, made of thin flakes. Tools
typical of this culture are elongated points, flakes of various shapes
used as scrapers, end scrapers and many denticulate tools used for
cutting and sawing.

It is not known what connection, if any, exists between the
Neanderthal Mousterian culture and later cultures.

The earliest ancestors of the
Hebrews in the archaeological record are the pre-historic Levantine
cultures: Kebaran, Natufian, Yarmukian and Ghassulian, and the Halaf and Ubaid cultures of the
Aram Naharaim and Eridu regions respectively.

Genetic studies show that the
Jewish people are descended from the pre-historic Levantine communities.

Abraham was thus born into a
civilization that was at least 16 200 years old. As an
outgrowth of the earliest inhabitants of Israel, Jews have had ancestors
in Israel for at least 20 000
years. (If there is continuity between the Mousterian culture and the later
Kebaran culture, then Jews have in fact had ancestors in the region for
some 200 000 years or more.)

Hunting and gathering. Sickles
of flint blades set in straight bone handles for gathering wild grain
and stone mortars and pestles for grinding it. Cave dwellings and
villages. Buried their dead with their personal ornaments in cemeteries.
Carved bone and stone artwork.

Developed into the Yarmukian culture and
contributed to the development of the Halaf culture.

Pottery decorated with incisions
of a herring-bone pattern. Sickle blades with course denticulation. A
rich assemblage of art objects, which include large numbers of schematic
anthropomorphic pebble figurines.

Large-scale irrigation systems and distinctive buff or greenish
coloured pottery decorated with geometric designs in brown or black
paint; tools such as sickles often made of hard fired clay in the south,
stone and sometimes metal used for tools in the north. Farming villages
grow into small towns, some
with temple buildings.

Contributed to the development of both the Hebrew and Mesopotamian
cultures.

The history of
Israel begins with Adam who was the first person to practice the Jewish
religion.

(Although the
Jews as a
people start with Abraham, Judaism as a religion
started with Adam.)

There were ten generations from
Adam to Noah.

3761 - 2830 BCE

0
- 930 YM

Adam
and Eve: The beginning of the Jewish calendar and the start of Jewish history.

The
first generation: The first
people to worship the G-d of Judaism were Adam and his wife Eve (Chavah).

According to Jewish tradition, Adam and
Eve are the ancestors of all
mankind and the name Adam is used in Hebrew to denote man,
particularly in the sense of mankind.Jewish tradition considers the creation of the
world to have been completed when Adam and Eve came into being. The
Jewish festival of Rosh Hashanah (Head of the Year) is
considered to have been established at that time. It marks the beginning
of the Jewish year and commemorates the creation of the world and of
Adam and Eve. The creation was divided into six "days" with
the creation of mankind on the sixth day. G-d is said to have rested on
the seventh day - an event commemorated weekly by the Shabbat (Sabbath).

Adam and Eve originally lived in the land of Eden (a place also mentioned in Babylonian
texts) which was located at the sources
of the Euphrates, Tigris, Pishon (Uizhun) and Gihon (Gaihun-Aras)
rivers.
However they were banished from Eden after eating of the forbidden tree
of knowledge. Adam is said to
have gone to the land of Israel and performed penance at the Jordan.
There was a town near the Jordan called Adam, the name of which is
perhaps related to this event.

The Temple Mount is said to be the place
of Adam's first sacrifice to G-d. The Temple Mount is thus regarded as
being a holy site to Judaism for nearly 6000 years. It is also
said that the skull of Adam is buried there. Mystical traditions claim it to be
the place where G-d gathered dust to create Adam, the place where the
waters of the deep were blocked off during the creation of the world,
the first place in the world to be created and the very source of the
first light of creation.

Some think that Adam is the same as Tudiya
Adamu whose name is found at the beginning of the Assyrian
King List (AKL), also thought to be
equivalent to Tubtiyamuta
listed in the Genealogy of the Hammurabi Dynasty
(GHD). (The names in the beginnings of the AKL
and the GHD are thought to be corrupted mixes of the
names of the descendants of Adam.) The ancient Egyptians deified their
ancestors and some see a connection with
Atum whom they worshipped as the creator of man.

Cain (Qayin) and Abel (Hevel), the sons of Adam made offerings to
G-d at the Temple Mount. The continued use of the Temple Mount by the
early followers of Judaism after Adam, is a further reason for its holiness to
Judaism.

Cain was a tiller of the ground
and Abel was a keeper of sheep. Abel offered the
firstlings of his flock and Cain offered the fruits of the ground but
not the choicest. Abel's offering was accepted while Cain's was
rejected. Cain subsequently killed Abel out of jealousy. As punishment,
Cain was banished to the land of Nod east of Eden.

The four generations sprung from Cain were
his son Enoch
(Chanokh), his grandson Irad (`Irad), his great
grandson Mehujael (Mechuya'el)
and his great great grandson Methushael (Metusha'el).

Cain is credited with building the first city,
which he named after
his son Enoch. This is thought to be the city of
Eridu in the east of Biblical Israel west of the Euphrates. Eridu was
regarded as the first city in Sumerian tradition and the name can be
understood to mean City of the Son. Some see the name Irad as being related to Eridu.
(Towns and villages in Israel already existed before the first formal
city - the town of Jericho dates back to the early Natufian period.)

Lamech (Lamekh) was the son of
Methushael. He had two wives Adah (`Adah)
and Zillah (Tzillah). Adah's children were the brothers Jabal
(Yaval) and
Jubal (Yuval), Zillah's children were Tubal-Cain (Tuval-Qayin) and
his sister Naamah (Na`amah).

Jabal established
cattle
farming and the use of the tent style dwelling by such farmers.
Jubal was the first to use musical
instruments such as the harp and pipe. Tubal-Cain
was the first to use cutting instruments of copper
and
iron. Naamah
is said to be the first to have used instruments for weaving silk.

The
children of Lamech turned away from the worship of G-d to idol worship.

The
second generation: Seth (Shet) was the son of Adam
from whom Noah was
descended. Like Adam, Seth worshipped the G-d of Judaism.

Whereas Cain's descendents turned
away from G-d, Seth's
descendents remained faithful. Their community was known as the Bnei
Elohim (Sons of G-d) and they lived on Mount Hermon in the
land of Israel, whereas Cain's descendants lived in the valley below.
They are credited with the invention of astronomy and are said to
have recorded their knowledge on a pillar of brick and on a pillar of
stone.

According to tradition Seth was born when
Adam was 130 and lived 912 years. Adam died when Seth was 800.

The
third generation: Enosh was the son of
Seth. It was during his lifetime that
people started worshipping heavenly bodies and idols which gradually led
to abandonment of the worship of G-d. It is also said that people began
mining gold, silver and gems, and gathering pearls during the time of
Enosh. It was during his lifetime that
there was a large ocean flood described as covering a third of the land. Tradition regards this flood as
punishment for the idolatry of the generation.

According to tradition Enosh was born
when Seth was 105 and lived 905 years. Seth died when Enosh was 807.

The fourth generation: Kenan (Qeynan) was the son of
Enosh. He is said to have
been very knowledgeable and a genius. During his lifetime there was a
second great sea flood also described as covering a third of the land. Kenan is said to
have forecast the coming of the great flood in the days of Noah. His
prediction and an account of the sea flood were recorded on a monument on an island in the Indian Ocean,
also said to be his burial place.

According to tradition Kenan was born
when Enosh was 90 and lived 910 years. Enosh died when Kenan was 815.

The earliest settled inhabitants of
Israel after the flood were the Bnei Shem or Shemites, who are named
after their ancestor Shem. The Shemites were the founders
of Jerusalem, originally called Shalem (Salem). Jerusalem is
first mentioned in history c. 2500 BCE roughly the time that the Tanach
places Shem.

Shem was the earliest owner of the land of Israel. He
built Jerusalem together with his great-grandson Eber, and was its first
ruler. He is said to be a priest of the
Jewish G-d. The city of Jerusalem is thus regarded as being the home of
the Jewish priesthood and a holy city to Judaism, right from time it was
founded almost 4500 years ago. The site chosen for the city
surrounds the Temple Mount, a place already regarded as holy since the
time of Adam. The land of Israel, stretching from the
Nile to the Euphrates was Abraham's rightful inheritance from Shem.

Eber
worshipped the same G-d as Shem and Abraham. The religious institution of
ancient Jerusalem is called the Academy (Yeshiva) of Shem and
Eber. It is regarded as the first Jewish religious institution.

The oldest name for the Jewish
people is Hebrews (Ivrim). This name is derived from Eber (Ever),
the earliest form being Bnei
Ever, meaning sons of Eber. The oldest name for the land of Israel
is Eretz Ha-Ivrim, meaning Land of the Hebrews. Hebrew (Ivrit) is the name used
for the language of the Jewish people. Today the
term Hebrews is most commonly used when emphasizing
the ethnic and cultural identity of the Jewish people.

Archaeology has confirmed the
existence of a
powerful king named Eber ruling at the city of Ebla at the time that the
Tanach places Eber. During his rule we find the use of the Jewish
name for G-d appearing in personal names.

Abraham is the first of the
three Jewish Patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Although several of Abraham's
ancestors, including Eber, Shem, Noah and Adam, are said to have
worshipped the Jewish G-d before him, none of them established a people
who followed the Jewish religion passing on their religious identity
from generation to generation. Abraham was the first to do that. The
Jews as a people began with Abraham although the earliest name for them,
the Hebrews, is derived from Eber, the ancestor of Abraham whose
religion he had rediscovered.

Abraham was born in the city of
Ur-Kasdim. It is said to lie in the region of Biblical Israel known as
Aram Naharaim - the region in which the headwaters of the Euphrates lie.
Others place it in the southeast of Biblical Israel, just west of the
Euphrates or in central Biblical Israel near Ebla.

Later
Abraham moved to the city of Haran in Aram Naharaim. At various times in
his life he lived at other locations in Israel, including Elon Moreh
near Shechem, between Beth-El and Ai, Elonei Mamre near Hebron and Beer-sheba.